Estate

Effective estate management enables you to manage your affairs during your lifetime and control the distribution of your wealth after death. An effective estate strategy can spell out your healthcare wishes and ensure that they're carried out – even if you are unable to communicate. It can even designate someone to manage your financial affairs should you be unable to do so.

Featured Video

When Special Care Is Needed: The Special Needs Trust

A special needs trust helps care for a special needs child when you’re gone.

When Do You Need a Will?

When do you need a will? The answer is easy: Right Now.

A Brief History of Estate Taxes

Federal estate taxes have long since been a lucrative source of funding for the federal government.

Safeguard Your Digital Estate

If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

• Articles

  Problems with Probate

  Probate can be a completely public process, or it can be managed to include as little information as possible.

  Test Your Estate Strategy Knowledge

  Estate management can help ensure that your assets are transferred according to your wishes while managing tax issues.

  Understanding the Alternate Valuation Date

  Executors can value the estate on the date of death, or on its six-month anniversary —the “Alternate Valuation Date."

  Succeeding at Business Succession

  There are a number of reasons for business owners to consider a business succession plan sooner rather than later.

  White Elephant Inheritance

  This article deals with how one might deal with a burdensome inheritance.

  Critical Estate Documents

  Sound estate management includes creating financial and healthcare documents. Here's an inside look.

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• Calculators

  What's My Potential Estate Tax?

  This calculator helps estimate your federal estate tax liability.

  What Is My Current Net Worth?

  Use this calculator to estimate your net worth by adding up your assets and subtracting your liabilities.

  What Is My Life Expectancy?

  Estimate how many years you may need retirement assets or how long to provide income to a surviving spouse or children.

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• Videos

  When Special Care Is Needed: The Special Needs Trust

  A special needs trust helps care for a special needs child when you’re gone.

  Safeguard Your Digital Estate

  If you died, what would happen to your email archives, social profiles and online accounts?

  Exit Strategies of the Rich and Famous

  Estate conservation is too important to put off. Do you have a smart exit strategy?

  Estate Management 101

  A will may be only one of the documents you need—and one factor to consider—when it comes to managing your estate.

  When Do You Need a Will?

  When do you need a will? The answer is easy: Right Now.

  Charitable Giving: Smart from the Heart

  Do you have causes that you want to support with donations?

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